Expanding Civic Space

“An autonomous and vibrant civil society plays a crucial role in strengthening democratic governance; facilitating civil society participation in public life, opening issues for public debate and ensuring that people can contribute to the policies and decisions that affect their lives, including the most excluded, marginalized and discriminated against sections of society, expands civic space and the improves the quality of democratic discourse. Allowing voices to be heard, even when they express criticism or unpopular views, is key to expanding civil society space, holding decision makers to account, to ensure that promises are kept, policies are reviewed, lessons learned and improvements made – and brings significant rewards in terms of transparency, accountability, legitimacy of governance and governments and long-term stability.”